ON FOSSIL FUNGI. 321 



to that represented in Mr. Dinning's drawing ; and indeed Mr. 



Dinning says that the surface-sculpture in the two is exactly the 

 same. 



"We can therefore have little difficulty in concluding that this 

 so-called reptilian malar is really a considerable portion of the 

 upper central bones of the cranium of Anthracosaurus. It was 

 found in the same locality that supplied our specimen of this 

 Labyrinthodont, and not very long before it occurred. 



XYL—On sovie curious Fossil Fungi from the Black Shale of the 

 Northumberland Coal-Field. By Albany Hancock, F.L.S., 

 AND Thomas Atthey. (Plates VII., VIII.) 



It is now about ten years ago that a few sections of certain len- 

 ticular bodies were made and their peculiar tubular ramifications 

 revealed. These bodies were then supposed to be of vegetable 

 origin, and were procured in the Cramlington black shale. At 

 the time we took these tubular ramifications to be those of a 

 parasitic fungus related to the unicellular fungi described by 

 KoUiker;* and as such our specimens were exhibited at one of 

 the early microscopic soirees held by the Tyneside Naturalists' 

 Field Club. 



Since we first became acquainted with these curious and in- 

 teresting bodies, we have collected a vast number of specimens 

 (not less than one hundred and fifty) at Cramlington, Newsham, 

 and other localities ; and, having been engaged for the last few 

 months investigating the subject, we now propose to give a suc- 

 cinct account of the results at which we have arrived, reserving 

 for some future occasion more complete details of our researches. 



First, then, with regard to the bodies themselves in which the 

 peculiar structure alluded to is found. They are frequently cir- 

 cular, a good deal depressed and lenticular, with one side gener- 

 ally flatter than the other, sometimes quite flat. The largest 



* Sec Ann. & Ua^.. Nat. Hist., Ser. 3, Vol. IV., p. 300, October. IS-'O. 



